News

News

NICARAGUA TRAINING UPDATE February 2015

WOW, what a great group of motivated, creative, dedicated trainees! Trainees from Potters for Peace, The Peace Project, The Aromansse Hotel, a community group from Xiloa and Branching Out Nicaragua, based in Masaya. We are also pleased to have Tracy Rice and Miquel Lopez as associate trainers. Miquel built all of the metal presses. The group is learning fast and working hard and will likely be well on the road to being trainers themselves after getting more experience at production. We feel very very fortunate to be working with such a training group and are optimistic about the future of ecoleña in Nicaragua.

TANZANIA STILL GOING STRONG

We trained Marietha Kusaga and Zuajia Kiiza in 2007 as biomass briquette producers and trainers. Since then, they have trained hundreds of others and grown their group into active producers and trainers. They recently sent us some pictures of a demonstration they did in Morogoro Tanzania for Nane Nane a farmers exhibition in cooperation with the Morogro Municipal Council. These pictures demonstrate their self reiliance and the total local ownership of the process. They sold 500 briquettes during the event! HONGERA Doche Women's group - Tanzania, especially Marietha and Zaujia. VISIT OUR FACEBOOK PAGE FOR MORE PICTURES:

LEGACYFOUNDATION

NEWS FROM AROUND THE WORLD

Greeting!

We continue to receive requests for information from around the world - last year requests came from Ethiopia, Cameroon, Nigeria, India, Pakistan, The Sudan, Uganda, Guatemala, Bosnia, to name a few of the locations. We always appreciate information requests and news from producers so that we can continue to build the network of biomass briquette producers.

In news from Ethiopia, DORCAS a Dutch NGO organized a comprehensive biomass briquette training for several women's groups. Mary and Francis Kavita, who Legacy Foudnation trained in 1999, provided the Ethiopis training. . Here is a picture from the biomass briquette training that Mary and Francis organized for Dorcas.

We look forward to the continued spread of the biomass briquette technology worldwide. Our goal is to increase the network of biomass briquette producers, linking them for technical support in all areas of production and marketing.

---¡Please Visit our page in Espanñol¡ Click on the Flag of Mexico for everything in Spanish. Thanks for visiting our page and give us a call anytime if you have questions about biomass briquetting: 541 Two Nine Two- Three Four Five Seven.

Legacy Foundation in partnership with Fuñdación Progresar in Guatemala completed a TRAINING OF TRAINERS in Solola Guatemala from 12-16th November 2012. Fifteen EcoLeña producers learned how to conduct biomass briquette training and are now available to provide comprehensive training services in Mesoamerica and Latin America, through Fundación Progreser. Contact Dr. Letecia Valesquez at admon.progresar@gmailcom or contact us at: info@legacyfound.org for more information about receiving training in the production of biomass briquettes - EcoLeña.

This TOT was built upon the recently completed intensive biomass briquette producer's training from 16-21 April in Tecpan Guatemala with 20 participants from Sacapulas, Quichè, Coban, Huehuetenango, Altaverapaz and San Marcos. Participants also included INAB staff (the National Department of Forest Conservation). Then after the participants were producers for over six months, several producers were selected to become EcoLeña trainers. Both trainings have been a solid start to the development of EcoLeña producers and trainers in the region.

The strong connection between the project and the Maya respect for Mother Earth and its resourceswas profound and brought us all together even though we were speaking at least 5 different languages during both of the training events.

The challenge now will be to ensure that the information spreads, that the technology remains appropriate and that the development of skills in briquette making grows.

Richard Stanley and Peter Stanley (photographer) with the support of Josh Vinlove as translator visited some of the production sites at the end of June 2012 and were pleased to see the great progress being made on the project.

The picture below is of Katarina Lopez and briquettes recently made in Sacapulas.Visit www.photopoa.com/guatemala for more photographs from that followup visit.

We will continue to provide news updates as the project grows and spreads.

UGANDA

Vickie Akia has recently completed a training of producers through a UNDP grant. She continues to provide excellent training in Uganda helping to spread the use of biomass briquettes as a fuel wood alternative.

NEW MANUALS AVAILABLE

All of the production and training manuals are now available in Spanish. Contact info@legacyfound.org for information about those manuals.

As well, The Rachet Press Construction and Users Manualsare now available our website!

Go to the PRODUCT LINK www.legacyfound.org/store/home.php Like the other 20 odd presses in the market, we believe it has its own niche. It is designed for easy transport and storage. It weighs about 15 kgs., can be free standing or mounted on to any vertical structure (i.e. a tree!). With a divider it is capable of producing 4 briquettes a minute.

We introduced the Ratchet Press at the Briquette Producers Conference in 2011 and it is now being fully incorpporated into briquette production in Tanzania. Plans cost in the range of others available on our website. As with all of our products, all sales go directly to support project developments globally. We are also encouraging regional based production site partnerships.

The Briquette Marketing Manual The Marketing Manual will assist both the briquette producer and trainer in developing a practical marketing plan for the sale of their products or services. The Manual was tested in Tanzania with great results and was written for a global audience.

We are currently working on various projects to support briquette producers worldwide with an extensive biomass briquettemarketing focus, taking the training and production project that last mile to market their goods and services. An associate in Tanzania, Vera den Otter, , has worked with producers and trainers in the Mkombozi and Likozi Women's Group in Lushoto to prepare and test a comprehensive biomass briquette producer's marketing manual. The manual is also now availabel at www.legacyfound.org/store/home.php

It provides practical tools for briquette producers worldwide to enhance their capacity to both sell briquettes, as a fuel wood alternative, but also - for trainers - to get support to conduct biomass trainings in their area. Let us know if you are interested in this aspect of briquette production!

The objective is to spread the word and skills about the viability of biomass briquettes as a fuel wood alternative. Specific focus continues to be on working with women's groups to support income generation for the participants while conserving the environment. The combination of goals has proven very successful for briquette producers and trainers and we look forward to enhancing the capacity of our associates with improved marketing knowledge and skills.

EVALUATION:

Richard and Joyce Stanley completed the final evaluation of the McKnight Foundation funded training of trainers for Tanzania and Uganda in December 2011 Joyce and Richard focused on Tanzania; Ziria Ndifuna and Timothy Lubega focused on Uganda. After three years of training of producers and trainers, reports are indicating a very successful result from the initiative in Tanzania and Uganda, with a large number of producers being trained, quality briquettes being produced, income generated by the producers and trainers and an active network of briquetters in East Africa. Here are some pictures taken by Peter Stanley at the Mkombozi group's headquarters in Lushoto. www.photopoa.com

KISWAHILI AND SPANISH MANUALS

We are happy to announce the availability of KiSwahili and Spanish Briquette Manuals. The cost is the same as the English Versions, with a special, complete 4 manual order, including the Construction, User, Trainers and Theory Manuals for $85.00. These will soon be added to the product page, but in the meantime, If you are interested, contact us at info@legacyfound.org